A place to find the most amazing Latin American folk tales

Hapunda

Hapunda was a beautiful princess that lived on the Yunuen Island on the Patzcuaro Lake. She was not only gorgeous but also very kind and the most beloved person in the entire island.

Stories about her exceptional beauty and kindness started to spread around the surrounding villages and finally got to the ears of some Chichimecas warriors. This unwanted characters decided to kidnap the princess and take her to their king as a gift hoping for glory and gold in return. The princess’ brothers offered to defend her but she knew that the enemy army was much bigger and powerful and her brothers would probably not succeed and die defending her.

She was not going to surrender easily either so she decides to escape in the middle of the night. She run to the Patzcuaro Lake who she believed was her one true love and poured her dramatic story into his waters. The lake felt her sorrow and despair and asked her to dive into his waters so they can be united forever and so she did. After going into the deepest end of the lake she emerged, reborn into a mighty white heron and forever stayed around her beloved Patzcuaro flying and feeding from it for all eternity.